


curtain closed

by tastybaby



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Angst, F/M, Repairing Relationships, SWSH plot retelling, this fic will have a happy ending :)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:01:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22919620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastybaby/pseuds/tastybaby
Summary: Their story had ended many years ago. To reopen the narrative was to unstitch their wounds and drag them back onstage, unwilling, but flickering alive at the prospect of a new chapter. An epilogue.The plot of Sword and Shield, but it follows Leon and Sonia’s perspective.** On Hiatus **
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Sonia
Comments: 11
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

It was 2:00 am by the time he got home.

Home, if he could call it that. This was where he slept and showered, and where all his mail went, but he didn’t feel any different here than he did anywhere else.

Actually, that wasn’t true. He let himself feel a lot _more_ here than he did anywhere else. And it was evidenced by the week-old takeout containers that circled around his couch, the contents of his sink that smelled putrid and offended him so much that he’d been known to toss perfectly good dishes in the trash just to avoid having to confront them. 

Leon dropped his keys in the little bowl by the door—a pinch pot with an uneven red glaze—handmade by Hop when he was...seven? Eight? His mother had shipped it to him, because he hadn’t had time to fly to Postwick for his own birthday that year. Or the following year. But Hop had made it for him, and seeing it every day when he got home at some offensively late hour was a reminder that there was someone out there who wanted him to wake up tomorrow, regardless of whether or not he and Charizard kept winning.

He threw his coat over the back of his couch and headed for the kitchen. He’d just finished another grueling training session, something he could only do this late at night now to avoid the prying eyes of the public, and he was _starving._ The sink was a disaster, and there was still a pot of half-eaten canned soup on the stove from last weekend, and Leon resisted the temptation to spend a fourth day subsisting only on the protein shakes that one of his sponsors sent him crates of every month. He wanted something hot, and he didn’t want to have to think about his fucking macros for once. Deep in the corner of his pantry, he found a block of instant noodles. That would do. 

He really didn’t want to wash the pot on the stove, so he fished around in his cabinets for another one, and it was way too big for a single serving of instant noodles, but he filled it with water and clicked on the stove anyway. A watched pot would never boil, no matter how much he frowned at it, so he tore himself away from it to go change out of his workout gear. Leon had to kick his way through a pile of dirty clothes to make it to his bed, fishing out whatever sweatpants and t-shirt he’d worn to bed last night. It smelled okay, so he slipped them on over his head just in time to hear the water bubbling and boiling.

Dinner was served within minutes, but he didn’t have anywhere to eat it, so he stood over the stove and used a pair of disposable chopsticks to shovel everything into his mouth. He probably wouldn’t have even tasted it if it wasn’t so spicy it made his nose run. 

He needed sleep, but he was tense and frustrated, and the only way to turn his brain off was to come, and that was over with a flush of his toilet and a lather of soap rinsing out of his hands. Leon didn’t even bother turning off the bathroom light before burying himself in his blankets. He remembered to set his alarms, and drifted off wondering if he should have Oleana run through his flat with her Garbodor again. 

In the morning, he showered with his face under the faucet, cold water making him shiver in an attempt to shrink the bags under his eyes. He had procrastinated too long on writing endorsement letters, but he’d have plenty of time on the train. After drying his hair halfway, Leon pocketed as many protein bars as he could carry, downed an energy drink, and headed for the door. 

The trip to Wedgehurst was a long one, and there were plenty of hours to catch up on sleep along the way. He wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to sleep, though.

* * *

“Stupid,” Sonia cursed to herself, squinting at the mirror on her vanity. She was so anxious and wired on caffeine that she was trembling, and her mascara wand had grazed her cheek, a waterproof slash through an hour of careful blending and color-correcting. Was she seriously in such a _state_ that she couldn’t even do her makeup? What was the point in decorating an empty head if she couldn’t even apply mascara properly?

Frustrated, she stuck the wand back in the tube and shoved it in the drawer. She was going to have to start over. She didn’t have time, but it didn’t matter, because her lip color was out of season anyway. Her skin was taking the color all wrong, and the blush she’d been experimenting with was pulling ruddy and uneven on her cheeks. 

Sonia caught her own gaze in the mirror. Hairs were out of place. The polish on her hands was chipped. Going through the motions of getting ready for this long had done nothing but make her look worse. She challenged her own gaze, willing her shell to unfurl and protect her. It didn't come, and she hiccuped and faltered instead. Fat, ugly tears rolled down her cheeks. She tore her gaze away from the mirror, unable to face herself anymore. Unable to hold back. Sonia balled her hands into fists and pounded against her head, coughing and grimacing through sobs. Her stupid, idiot _empty head_ that she couldn’t even make up correctly! She wanted to sweep her hand across the vanity and throw everything in the bin, and then jump in and stay there forever. 

She could hear footsteps creaking in the wood laminate outside her door, and the click and groan of her grandmother’s cane. Sonia took a shaky, wretched breath and collected herself, lest a well-meaning family member see her in such a state of disarray. The footsteps grew quieter and disappeared, and Sonia reached for a tissue on her vanity. 

There wasn’t anything productive left to dissect in the mirror, so she avoided it and collapsed onto her bed, with her Rotom phone buzzing around with an incoming call from Nessa.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Nessa parted through the sounds of a crowd. Sonia thought she could hear some laughter. “We just got to the restaurant. Where are you?”

“Mm, sorry love, I don’t...I don’t think I’m gonna make it.” Sonia fought to keep her voice even. “It got really busy at the lab, and Gran’s got me on a tight leash tonight.” A believable lie, but her delivery betrayed her when her voice broke. 

“Everything okay?” Nessa’s tone changed.

“Yeah,” Sonia breathed. Another lie. “I’m just busy. I’ll make it up to you.”

“‘Kay, if you say so,” Nessa sounded concerned, and not convinced in the slightest. “We’ll miss you. Love you.”

“Love you. Have fun.”

Sonia’s eyes stung. 

_Waterproof,_ she thought, _won’t be buying this shite again._


	2. Chapter 2

Cleaning and purging her living space was something Sonia did to self-soothe. Today’s task was cleaning her vanity, which had a lot of old and expired products floating around in the drawers, so she sat cross-legged on the floor with a fresh bag in her bin. Yesterday’s offending mascara was the first thing to go, followed by some lipsticks and blushes that were just never going to work for her, and she even finally said goodbye to her favorite powder, which she had been hoarding despite already buying a replacement, because it still had some precious traces of product left.

There was a piece of paper peeking out from underneath a layer of unwashed makeup brushes. Curious, Sonia fished it out, and regretted that decision immediately. 

It was the crudest rendition of a Charmander she’d ever seen, with layers of tempera paint so thick that they were chipping off, and still fragrant. Sonia took a deep breath and turned it over, and there, sure enough, in crayon, was his handwriting. The L and E were a lot bigger than the O and N, which were shortened and fit onto the edge of the page in an endearing show of his loud personality. There was a shaky _THANK YOU!!_ written above it, and it was addressed to her. She held it up to the light and sighed. Sonia remembered exactly when he’d drawn it. 

* * *

She was sitting cross-legged here too, but over a decade younger with her hair in two tight, bushy pigtails. Leon was pointing excitedly at a magazine on the floor in his bedroom, explaining some training concept that she’d heard of, but only in grown-up words, and his bite-sized delivery was much easier to comprehend. 

“You can do that with your Charmander?” Sonia asked, wide-eyed.

“Not yet!” Leon grinned, hands crossed over his chest. “But someday, for sure! I’m gonna make him so big that he’ll fill up Wyndon Stadium!”

“I dunno if that’s how it works,” Sonia bluffed, but the concept was exciting nonetheless. Leon was about to say something when they both heard some loud voices downstairs. Sonia recognized one of the voices as Leon’s mum, but the man didn’t sound familiar at all. 

“Mum’s not s’posed to be yelling,” Leon sat up and tiptoed to his door, cupping his ear. “Dad said if Mum yells, my brother will come early and be sick.” 

“That makes no sense,” Sonia frowned, but went to listen at the door as well. “Is that your dad?”

“Mhm.”

Sonia had never seen Leon’s father before. Leon said that he was nice, and that he gave him lots of presents, but right now, he mostly just sounded frightening. They were using adult words that Sonia didn’t understand, and a few words she _did_ know, but wasn’t allowed to repeat. She was struggling to decipher their conversation when they both heard Leon’s name, and she watched him freeze in place. 

“They’re talking about me,” he said quietly. She was about to press her ear closer to hear better, but she could see tears in his eyes. It sounded like they were close. On the staircase. “I think I did something bad. Mum’s crying. I think I made her cry.”

She was about to turn to say something, but she’d looked up to see Leon with tears running down his cheeks.

“Don’t listen,” she whispered, reaching out to cup her hands over his ears. He was quiet, but he hugged her and cried on her shoulder. She kept her hands over his ears. Feeling him cry made her cry, too, but she swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped her nose on her sleeve, determined to stay strong for her friend. 

“I’m—I’m gonna peek.” 

He nodded.

Sonia opened the door and squinted, poking her head out and looking both ways to make sure their route was clear. She scrambled over to her coat, which was hanging off of a post on his bed, and pulled out Yamper’s ball to release him. They made their escape with their pokèmon at their heels, and eventually Leon’s tears dried as they chased each other back to Wedgehurst. She took him upstairs and taught him how to mix red and yellow to make orange, and they painted Charmanders for the rest of the afternoon.

She hadn’t thought about that day in a long time, and it occurred to her in the moment, with her adult point of view, how traumatic and sad Leon’s childhood might have been. Her heart ached for him, as it always did, but this pull was coming from a different, more tender place.

“Leon’s in town,” Magnolia startled her from her doorway. “You should put on some real clothes and go see him.” Sonia wanted to roll her eyes, but knew better. 

“I think I’ll pass.”

“Mm,” her grandmother appraised, “well, still, dear. It’s half past eleven. You shouldn’t be lounging around inside on such a beautiful day.”

* * *

Sleeping in his old bed had been awful.

To put it simply, it just wasn’t big enough for him anymore. He couldn’t toss and turn restlessly in a full-sized bed that creaked and bellowed under him, and hearing Hop’s pronounced laughter and cries of joy across the hall didn’t help either. Not that it was unwelcome, he wouldn’t have traded and bred for the Scorbunny if he wasn’t trying to put a smile on his little brother’s face, but it was hard to turn his brain off and not worry if it was the right choice. Hop was the best thing that ever happened to him, but encouraging him to follow in his footsteps like he so desperately wanted to didn’t seem ethical, somehow. Maybe that was just a testament to how unhappy he was, or perhaps it was just his own selfishness trying to keep one thing for himself? Either way, he wasn’t thrilled about what he was feeling.

The morning had started rough, with Hop and his friend carting off into the bloody _Slumbering Weald_ , as if the two of them hadn’t been trained to fear the place practically since birth. It wasn’t the first time Leon had wandered around in there, but it was the first time he’d ever had to confront the idea that Hop might get hurt, and he was jumpy and nervous the whole time.

His heart stopped when he found the two kids with their faces in the dirt, but sure enough, Hop sprang up like nothing was wrong and spouted off about some intangible pokémon that probably could have killed them if it was in the mood. Leon opted not to grapple with that and fought the urge to surge forward and wrap his arms around his brother instead. He was impressed, ultimately, that Hop was brave enough to do something like that for a wild Wooloo. He wasn’t sure if he would have done it at that age if all he’d had were an amateur-trained Wooloo and a baby Scorbunny in his pockets. Would have made for a great story, though.

He left the two and stopped at home to explain everything to his mother, who had been laboring over something hot on the stove all day, likely for him to eat and be chastised for not eating correctly.

“I found him,” he called from the door, removing his shoes.

“Oh, thank goodness. Where was he?” the concern in her tone picked away at a wound.

“Somewhere he shouldn’t have been, doing something he shouldn’t have been doing,” he replied, leaning a hand on the kitchen table. “But I set him straight.”

“Thank you,” his mum watched him with soft eyes. “I knew you would.” 

Leon wasn’t sure why, but that didn’t sit right with him. He kissed her on the cheek and headed off to check something else off his list of chores. Charizard was still waiting for him at the station when he arrived.

“Well, buddy,” Leon heaved a sigh, clapping Charizard on the back. “Let’s go see her.”

He knew Hop and his friend needed to get their dex started, and he knew he had to be there for it, but he really wished that it didn’t have to be now, so soon after royally fucking up the last time they saw each other.

He got there first, somehow, and his hand was lingering over the door when Hop’s friend arrived. They went inside, and he was just about to convince himself that she wasn’t around when Yamper yapped at him from below. Defeated, he knelt to greet him.

“What is it today, Leon?” her voice came through, poisonous and ailing and hot, cutting through his armor and burning his skin. “Looking for info on another never-before-seen, superstrong Pokémon?” 

  
He looked up. She was being vague, but he was still appalled by how willing she was to air this out in front of a couple of kids. Leon saw the way she was looking at him, sharp, but nowhere near fuming, with a thick layer of artificial disinterest covering her eyes. _Was this her armor?_   
  
“I wish you’d stop with these outlandish requests.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i thought long and hard about whether or not to include the part with sonia and leon as kids, and i almost took it out. if you see yourself as either one of those kids, you're the reason i kept it in.
> 
> also, i still promise that this has a happy ending, and i'm going to do my best to get you there as believably and with as much intention as possible. thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realized belatedly that hop is actually not in the scene where you get your pokedex, so...poof! he's gone now. my bad.  
> ps - this is a loooooong chapter. i had a lot planned, and then i got carried away and added more. there's a little bit of nsfw here toward the end.

Floored, he didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything at all. Leon was still offended by how aggressive she was acting, despite her casual tone, but he could also hear that she was hurting, and that stung, because people only lashed out at the person who hurt them when they were feeling this way. He just wished she could wait fifteen minutes for this kid to leave before looking at him like that. But maybe he deserved it?

“Good to see you, too, Yamper!” No matter what kind of terms he and Sonia were on, Yamper would always wag his tail and lick his palms whenever he stopped by. Hop’s friend looked uncomfortable, like they could sense the tension in the room, but he’d committed to this, so he turned to them. 

“Yamper here is a real champ when it comes to helping you find your way around. He came to my rescue plenty of times back in the day, when I was on the road.” Sonia was standing in front of them now, and part of him didn’t want to play her game, and just ignore her, but this kid was smart and would have sniffed that out immediately, and probably told Hop. Leon didn’t need Hop hearing about him misbehaving, so he mustered up something neutral to say about Sonia. 

“Oh yeah, and that’s his trainer, Sonia.” He gestured to her, and she _was_ fuming this time. He carried on like nothing was wrong. “What can I say about Sonia? Well.” 

She was one of his best friends until about five years ago, and an old friend until a few weeks ago. When he got selfish and ruined everything and couldn’t face her anymore. His beloved title was like a knife, severing any connection he strove to maintain by sucking all his time and energy away. It hurt to see her hurting, especially because he’d meant everything he’d said that night. He fought himself to think of anything inconspicuous and unburdened by their emotional baggage that he could say to describe her.

“I like the way she cooks. She makes food you can gobble down in a flash.”

Sonia still looked angry, but she was either getting over it or getting better at swallowing it.

“What kind of introduction is that? Did you forget we were rivals during our Gym Challenge?” Leon almost started when she mentioned it, because Sonia’s participation in the Gym Challenge, as a topic, was akin to a swear word or some other taboo in her family, especially this time of year. He learned his lesson about mentioning her run through the challenge years ago, and it was distinctly out of character to bring it up now, especially in front of a kid who may or may not know how it ended. “It wasn’t just Yamper helping you out. I did, too.”

They locked eyes for a moment. He could see her brow knitted together and her shoulders rising and falling like she was trying to keep her breathing under control. He felt like a jerk just standing there staring at her, but he _had_ to be here, and if she was going to try and provoke him like this, he was the one who could benefit most from keeping his cool and saving face. He knew he owed her an apology, but now seriously wasn’t the time. Sonia seemed to either have had her fill of glaring at him, or realized that she was being inappropriate, because she smoothed herself out and turned to Hop’s friend with a warm smile. 

She introduced herself as the professor’s assistant, which was a new thing that he hadn’t heard about. Good for her, he thought, she was finally getting some recognition for everything she’d been doing for Professor Magnolia. 

Leon took the formality of introducing Hop’s friend, and, without thinking, added, “Set them on the right path, would you?” 

Yamper scurried off somewhere, and with nowhere else to shoulder off some of the tension in the room, Leon didn’t even wait for Sonia to reply before he turned curtly and walked away. 

He wasn’t furious, but he was embarrassed that she dragged that out in front of that kid. But if Sonia was here with them, that meant he could check in on the professor without her popping up and souring the mood like that again. 

She was in the garden when Leon arrived, and he took off his hat to greet her. 

“Well, look who it is,” she supported herself on her cane to stand. Professor Magnolia was one of the only people he knew who could spend as much time knelt in the dirt tending to her garden as she did and still emerge perfectly clean, the other one being her granddaughter. They had a knack for being meticulous and put together that he didn’t understand, but it was charming that it ran in the family. 

“Nice to see you, Professor! I hope you’re well,” Leon grinned politely, holding out an arm for her to support herself, but she didn’t take it. She never did, but she always watched him gratefully when he offered. 

“Did you happen to see Sonia? She’s holed up in the lab hiding from you,” she revealed blandly, watching him out of the corner of her eye. He felt the weight of it, but tried not to react. “Did something happen, dear? It’s been a while since you’ve been around, and Sonia was rather prickly when I mentioned you were in town.” 

“Is that so? I suppose it’s just been busy while we get ready for Challenger Season to begin!” He knew she didn’t believe her—he could hear it in her voice, and the way she drummed her fingers on the head of her cane—but it was better to lie and keep her out of it than to tell her anything. She would pry until she found out eventually anyway, if Sonia hadn’t already told her.

“Mm. I suppose so.” 

Magnolia’s disbelief aside, Hop and his friend were running up with wide grins connecting their ears, so they cut their conversation short. As they approached, his eyes wandered to the bench on the shore of the lake near the house. 

Leon couldn’t say no to Magnolia when she asked him to endorse them, and Hop was practically bouncing by the time they’d made it to the makeshift pitch out front. He remembered all the times he’d battled Sonia here, before and after they got their endorsements. At one point, they had to repaint the whole thing, because the guidelines were covered in burn scars from the first time his Charmander figured out how to use Ember. Sonia used to beat him all the time back then, but it just made him want to get stronger and catch up to her. 

Of course, out of nowhere, because Hop was a magical force of energy that seemed to manifest whatever he wanted into fruition, two Wishing Stars fell from the sky. Of course there were two, and of course Hop gave the other one to his friend. Even though Leon doubted the authenticity of a coincidence like this (as Rose had little birds everywhere), it was a nice bonus that Leon wouldn’t have to go buy them bands now. Dynamax bands weren’t exactly expensive, but they were hard to find in this part of the region, and the idea of the champion giving two huge advantages like that to his younger brother and his friend wouldn’t have looked great on paper. Hop looked happy, and Leon was excited to see him Dynamax something for the first time. 

Sonia arrived serendipitously to see him being chummy with her family in her home, and was preparing to leave when she spoke past him, directly to Hop. 

“Hey, you lot, why not have some dinner? You must be hungry, right?” 

If he hadn’t known her better, he would think everything was fine now from the complete 180 from this Sonia to the one he saw back at the lab. But he did know her better, and she had fresh makeup concealing a red glow that crept around her nose and eyes, looking swollen. He pretended not to notice, since she’d gone through the trouble of trying to hide it, but it made his shoulders feel heavy. 

“I’ve been _totally_ obsessed with making the latest trendy curries.” She added casually, addressing everyone except him.

Hop’s friend said something about wanting to try her cooking, and Hop himself had his fists clenched in excitement, as usual. He figured it would be rude to leave now, and he himself had been working up an appetite for Sonia’s curries as of late. 

Magnolia piped up to offer Leon’s assistance on his behalf, but Sonia shut that down gracefully, explaining that she liked having the kitchen to herself. It didn’t stop the professor from sending him into the kitchen with a cup of tea for her, and he figured this might be his only chance to talk to her alone, so he obliged. 

“Your gran wanted me to give you this,” he announced, setting it next to her on the counter where she was chopping pecha berries.

“Thanks,” Sonia reached out to take a sip, focused on what she was doing. “Ah. I prefer coffee.” Leon supposed this meant she was still upset with him. 

“I owe you an apology,” he began.

“Yes, many, actually.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

Sonia set her spoon down and slowly turned her head to face him, biting and cold eyes piercing him again. 

“No, you shouldn’t have.” She turned her attention back to the pot. 

“And I shouldn’t have ignored you for so long afterward.”

“No, you really shouldn’t have,” Sonia parroted herself, and he noticed her knuckles were white wrapped around the spoon. 

“But I meant—“

“But what, Leon?” she snapped at him, whirling around to lean forward and challenge his gaze. “‘But’ _what?_ But it felt right in the moment? But you didn’t know what else to say? But you regret it and you wanna take it all back?” 

Leon gritted his teeth. He knew she was upset, but if he couldn’t get a word in, he couldn’t explain anything. 

“Okay, not ‘but.’ I shouldn’t have kissed you and I shouldn’t have ignored you for weeks, _and_ , I meant what I said that night. Every word. And I just wish,” he could see her brows pushing together, and her lip quivering, and it made his throat dry and his eyes sting. “I just wish things were different. Because then I could have stuck around and, you know, put my money where my mouth is.” 

“Personally, I think your money and your mouth have both done enough.”

That cut him deeper than he’d liked to admit, and he was ready to give up and leave before he watched her blink away a tear in her eye. His hand hovered around her waist when she hitched and held in a whimper, looking determined to keep herself in one piece. 

“Sonia—“

“Leon, please,” Sonia took a deep breath. “Save it. You’ve humiliated me enough for one day. Just leave me be, okay?” He dropped his hand. 

“Okay. But,” he didn’t want to end it here. He had so much left to say still. “I’ll—I’ll be at the bench by the lake tonight if you wanna take a walk.” 

“Noted. Thanks for the tea.”

* * *

Leon left the kitchen looking like a kicked puppy, but Sonia didn’t feel too bad about not giving him what he wanted. If he wanted a girl that would drop everything for him and wait patiently while he was off being a national hero, signing League Cards and kissing babies or whatever the hell else he was so busy doing, she was sure he could find it elsewhere. 

Dinner was served. Hop and his friend were here with Magnolia and her husband, with Leon slouching meekly over his curry and pushing it around his plate next to her. Hop had already had two servings of Sonia’s Sweet Bone Curry, and his friend was working on their second. Sonia recalled wistfully when she and Leon used to have appetites like that. 

“You two are awfully quiet,” Magnolia observed, and Sonia sighed, indignant. Her grandmother really needed to change that filter of hers, all kinds of things were coming through. 

“Not much to say,” Sonia took a big swig from her glass of water. “I don’t do much. Leon, what have _you_ been up to?”

“Haha, not a lot I can talk about here,” he smiled like a politician being interviewed, and it sort of disgusted her. He had no right being so handsome in her home if she was supposed to be mad at him. “Lots of interesting challengers have already been endorsed this year, though.”

“I heard the Chairman endorsed someone,” Magnolia offered.

“Yeah, I’ve met the kid. He’s been in training school for a couple of years, now.” Leon recalled. “He’s a contender for sure.”

“Doesn’t matter! I’m gonna beat him and fight my way to challenge you, Lee!” Hop interjected, mouth halfway full of rice. The two of them delved into some healthy sibling ribbing that ended with Hop teasing him for not eating his food. 

“You’re normally inhaling everything so fast that you nearly choke, Lee! What, are you _shy_ or something?” Hop nudged him and eyed Sonia, and sometimes, she wished the kid wasn’t so bloody perceptive. 

“Just trying to be polite,” Leon laughed. “A meal like this is worth savoring, isn’t it?” Sonia felt his eyes on her and refused to meet them, finishing the rest of her water and standing abruptly to rush to the kitchen and refill her glass. 

Hop and his friend offered to do the dishes, which was sweet, but it also meant that Sonia didn’t have an excuse to not meet with Leon. She hid away in her room and changed out of her work clothes into some sweatpants, and then back into something a little less frumpy. She settled on an off-the-shoulder oversized tee tucked into some jeans. It wasn’t cold, so she didn’t think she needed a jacket, but as soon as she looked out her window and saw Leon sitting on that stupid bench with his stupid cap, she wished she’d brought an extra layer to hide under. 

The grass bending beneath her boots must have given her away, because he turned to watch her approach. 

“Thanks for dinner,” he began cautiously, “it was perfect.”

“Ahh, you’re just saying that,” she took a seat next to him. 

“No, really, it was. I haven’t had a home-cooked meal in a long time.” 

“Your mum not feeding you?”

“Not when I’m holed up in Wyndon, no.” 

“Well,” Sonia crossed one knee over the other and watched the water. “Glad you liked it.” 

“Sonia, can we please talk about this?” 

She paused. His voice didn’t sound like it did in interviews, or booming through the stadium. It was softer, and more vulnerable, which was something she didn’t even think he was still capable of. Sonia glanced down to see his hand on top of hers in her lap. She wasn’t super keen on it, but it was warm, and his fingers fit well in the spaces between hers. 

“Before you do your bit again,” she took a long, bracing sigh in through her mouth. “Can I do mine?”

“By all means.” 

“So, last time. You kissed me, and then you went head first into this spiel about how you were in love with me, and that you had been for a long time. That was...kind of a lot to process, even on its own. Dare I say, a little selfish, Leon.”

“Fair point.”

“And then you got a phone call and disappeared. I waited hours. Days. Nothing. You never even asked how I felt about you. Just dumped everything on me and left.”

“Those are all things I did,” Leon rubbed the back of his neck. “Sonia, I’ve had a lot of time to think about—“

“Hang on, love, I’m almost done, and then you can talk,” she interrupted, more gently this time. “I _also_ had a lot of time to think. Maybe even more time than you did? Spent some time sorting out why I was so upset. I went through the whole wheel. Angry, sad, bitterly happy. I even spent some time feeling _guilty_ about being mad at you for being too busy to catch up with me! Isn’t that ridiculous? Don’t look at me like that, you can say yes.” 

“...Yes?”

“Yeah. Absolutely mental. Couldn’t believe I convinced myself to feel like such shite over you.” She knew she was dragging it out, and from the way he was looking at her, he was uncomfortable, and she figured she couldn’t leave him to writhe and worry forever.

“Leon, I can't say with certainty how I feel about you,” she turned to face him, braving the raw vulnerability on his face. “I don’t know when I stopped loving you like a brother and feeling something else. I don’t know when I started resenting you so much. But I know that that night, when you…” This was the hard part, but she took a deep breath and powered through. 

“When you _kissed me_ , I felt something. And it scared me out of my skin,” it sounded so much sadder out loud, and she could see from how Leon was nodding along that he was listening intently despite that. 

Saying that he kissed her wasn’t necessarily fair. It was a decision that she made, too, and she could have pulled away if she wanted to. Putting herself in a passive position allowed her to pin the blame on him, and she’d been doing a lot of that these last few weeks. 

“I guess I mean, ‘when we kissed.’ It was a two-person job, for sure.”

“Do you know why it scared you?” he asked quietly. 

“No. Yes. Maybe. Part of it is that you’ve got no time, and that your whole life is on camera.”

“Not my whole life.”

“Most of it. Enough that I had to see you everywhere while I was feeling sorry for myself that you wouldn’t text me.” 

“Can I apologize for that now?”

“Knock yourself out.”

Leon surprised her when he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head under her chin. She could feel his pulse in his chest, and she threw an arm over his waist.

“I’m sorry. I got called away and I was too scared to face you. And then the days went by, and each day I felt worse and worse until I just...tried to forget about it. I realize how damaging and cruel that was.”

“I’m sorry for being so wretched to you earlier,” she whispered into him. “I don’t like being wretched to you, it’s no fun.”

That made Leon laugh. It was a little more ragged than his normal full-bellied laugh, but she enjoyed hearing it because it seemed like a private privilege of being this close to him. Leon rubbed her shoulder with one of his hands.

“So, what now?” he asked. 

“I don’t know. I don’t...really want to commit to anything tonight.”

“Can I stay like this, though?”

“For now, yeah. But if your brother comes out here I’m kicking you off the bench.” 

Leon paused, and Sonia listened to the way his lungs expanded when he sighed. 

“Hop and his friend got attacked by some mystery Pokémon in the Slumbering Weald yesterday.”

“They did _what?!_ How did you find them?!”

“Face down, in the middle of a labyrinth.”

“Shit, those two…”

“They were trying to save a Wooloo that had broken loose, apparently. Found it walking in circles before I caught up with them.”

“Goodness. I’m glad they’re both okay.”

“Me, too.”

“Come to my room,” Sonia sat up, eager to change the subject, and laughed at the way Leon balked at her. “Mind out of the gutter, you! I just have something to show you that I found this morning.” 

“Sure.” 

* * *

They crept up the rickety stairs and Sonia showed him the Charmander painting, which he also remembered, and they traded remembered details from that day for a few minutes sitting on her bed. 

Eventually, the painting was tucked away in a drawer, and Sonia found herself on her back with Leon looming over her. She didn’t mind his hands wandering all over her as long as she was permitted to do the same. He pulled his jersey off over his head and left it in a heap on the floor. 

This wasn’t like her at all, and she got the impression that it wasn’t something he did often either, but all of that went out the window when he groaned and unraveled underneath her. She had her hands grasping desperately in his hair, begging him to _stay_ here, if just for another moment, and every sound that left his lips promised that he would. She believed him, and they crashed together with so much raw and unrefined emotion that they didn’t have much to say. They had to keep quiet, but that didn’t stop them from filling her bedroom with fevered whispers of each others’ names until her thighs were shaking and he was gripping her waist with so much strength that she wondered what he was restraining himself from. 

Sonia tasted his lips one more time before falling asleep, barely there enough to hear him whispering something she wasn’t ready to hear with his nose buried in her hair. This was going to work out, she mused. Things were going to get better. She had him now.

Morning came, and she rolled back over to greet her guest. Her outstretched arm cut through the air and landed on her mattress. Confused, she opened her eyes. 

She was alone. Leon’s clothes were missing from the floor, and there was no trace of him anywhere. 

_Idiot_ , she thought, _what were you expecting?_

The realization punched all the air out of her, and just as she was beginning to gasp enough back into her lungs, an unfamiliar Rotom popped up out of her sheets. It was ringing with an incoming call from Raihan, and Sonia was able to put two and two together before she answered. 

“Hello? This is—“

“Sonia? Uh, morning. Sorry. Was _not_ expecting that. Where’s Leon?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” she replied, wounded. Raihan fell quiet on the other line. She wondered if she was that obvious, or if he just had a vivid imagination.

“I...see. Well, he’s late for the opening ceremony rehearsal in Motostoke, if you see him. I’ll let you get back to...it. Take care.” Rotom let her know that the call had ended.

“Motostoke, huh,” Sonia looked over Leon’s phone in her hands. Rotom watched her sheepishly. “What have you gotten into now, Leon?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shaking leon and sonia by the shoulders* YOu were SO CLOSE..... TO SAYING WHAT YOU NEEDED TO SAY.....SCREAM


End file.
